MAY 4, 2013

KING'S MEN'S TENNIS FALLS TO WILKES IN FREEDOM CONFERENCE TITLE MATCH

WILKES-BARRE -- For the second straight year the cross-town rival King's College and Wilkes University men's tennis teams battled it our for the Freedom Conference and an automatic berth into the NCAA Division III National Tournament. And for the second consecutive season, top-seeded Wilkes walked away with the team title.

The host Colonels won the three doubles matches to start the contest, then won two singles bouts before the competition was halted as Wilkes clinched a 5-0 victory Saturday in the Ralston Complex.

With the win, King's improved to 15-3 on the year while King's ended its season at 11-9.

In doubles, the Monarch squad of Tony Bevevino and Jake Rohring fell 8-3 to Steve Wilson and Alex Makos at number-one. At second doubles, King's Bobby Buttafogo and Chris DiMino dropped a 8-4 verdict. Wilkes built a 3-0 lead at number-three doubles when the Monarch duo of Ryan Hegarty and P.T. Romano fell 8-2 to Brendon Blachowski and Clarke Freeman.

In the singles competition, Kranz defeated Buttafogo 6-3, 6-2 while Colonel teammate Max Appello posted a 6-3, 6-0 win over DiMino to clinch the match. With the outcome decided, the remaining four singles matches were halted and left unfinished.

Despite the loss the Monarchs ended their season winning nine of their last 12 matches since going 0-4 during Spring Break, with two of their losses coming to Wilkes.